Friday morning, Jer-Bear woke up crying around 03:30 Kansas time, and Aimee went to comfort him. Around 04:00, she started feeling strong contractions. She'd been feeling contractions - usually at night - for a few weeks, but she said these were different, painful from the start. She went and got Sheba to take care of Jer-Bear. He wasn't too happy about that, but eventually he calmed down and fell back asleep.
Aimee went back to our room, woke me up and told me what was happening. I got her suitcase from the basement and Aimee went to take a shower. At that point, the contractions were about 10 minutes apart.
Just as I was almost done getting everything together, Eli got up and asked me to take him with us. I got Hadassah up and asked her to stay with him in his bed until he fell back asleep. Eli, of course, started crying, but he also calmed down after a while and fell asleep. People often ask us how we handle eight kids. That's how.
Aimee's parents arrived here from Washington late the previous Tuesday night. I woke Aimee's mom up and told her what was happening. The plan was for them to wait with the older kids for a while, then meet us at the hospital.
By the time Aimee was out of the shower and ready to go, I had everything ready to go and the car warming up. And Aimee's contractions were five minutes apart. It's a 20 minute drive to the hospital at Fort Riley. Half way there, the contractions were three minutes apart. By the time we arrived, they were a minute apart.
At the hospital, I explained to the nurses how quickly everything was progressing, but I'm just a worried dad, so they dismissed my explanation without a thought. It took much longer than I would've liked for them to even admit Aimee and give her an epidural. By then the contractions were pretty much back-to-back with almost no time in between.
By the time they finally got around to checking how far Aimee was dilated, Aimee was ready to push, and the nurse said, "Wow! This baby isn't waiting!"
No kidding. That's what I've been trying to tell you.
The doctor almost missed the delivery. Aimee's parents barely made it in time.
From the time Aimee felt the first contraction, until Lil' Pumpkin's official birth time was only five hours. And Aimee only pushed for eight to nine minutes. And she actually wanted to start pushing before that. It was pretty amazing. We were all surprised at how small Lil' Pumpkin turned out. She was only 0.4 oz heavier than Eli, and shorter than both boys. Aimee was a lot more uncomfortable a lot sooner with this pregnancy, so we expected Hannah to be a big baby. Oh well. They're both perfectly healthy, and thank God for that.
The doctor wanted to keep Aimee and Hannah at the hospital for 48 hours. Aimee was bored and ready to go home by the afternoon of the first day. I got to split my time between home with the older kids, and the hospital with Aimee and Hannah.
On Saturday, Aimee's parents and all the kids went to the hospital with me to meet Lil' Pumpkin. Aimee's parents made the following photos.
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| Candace is Hannah's buddy. They sit together in the van. |
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| I was very pleasantly surprised to see Isaiah so happy to hold his new little sister. |
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| That's a proud grandma! |
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| Lil' Pumpkin's ready to go, but she doesn't seem to sure about it. |
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| Home at last! |
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
Aimee and I are incredibly blessed. We have eight children - a high capacity quiver! But not only did God bless us with many children, all our kids are perfectly healthy. And He blessed Aimee and me with the health and resources to provide for them. On top of that, we're blessed in that I was present for all our bio-babies' births (although I was deployed when Aimee picked up our adopted children from Ethiopia), and that Aimee's parents also traveled to help us with all three births, and my sister, Albania, was able to visit us after Elijah's birth. We acknowledge that we didn't do anything to deserve these blessings. They're evidence of God's grace - His unmerited favor - in our lives.
God doesn't bless His children equally. He bestows greater blessings in one area on one child, and greater blessings in a different area on a different child. That may seem unfair to us, and it isn't, because none of us deserve any of it. If God gave all of us what we deserve - what we earned - we'd all receive judgement for our sin.
I'm reminded, as I watch Aimee with our youngest daughter, that I need to focus on the blessings God actually gave me and thank Him with fear and reverence, and never mind the blessings He gave His other children.
Thank you all who prayed for us with the adoption and each birth. Please let us know how we can pray for you.
2 comments:
Oscar,
The Lord has blessed you with many things and one of those is the gift of writing. Whether you're writing about politics, health, family, you write from the heart, that is very obvious.
Hannah is very beautiful and I hope when you and Aimee give the go ahead, I can come meet her and get some snuggles in.
I can say without a doubt, it's been a blessing and honor to pray for your family from the beginning.
Thanks, Christy. You're always welcome at our house. Your family is one of the many reasons we are blessed to have lived in Bamberg.
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